Rich Immigrants in Asia's financial capitals generally have life pretty easy. But this summer, those in Hong Kong and Singapore are starting to sweat. The problem? Sizzling real-estate markets that make even bankers blink, and international schools packed like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. One-bedroom flats in Hong Kong's most fashionable buildings now go for $5,000 per month. Office rents in Singapore have shot up 105 percent in the past year—the fastest appreciation rate in the world. For workers with kids, the picture is particularly bleak. Incoming students at international schools now land not in classes but on long waiting lists—unless their parents jump the queue by purchasing debentures that have sold for as much as $120,000 in Hong Kong.

   Asia's dueling financial hubs invest a lot of capital—real and emotional—in what's often cast as a zero-sum contest for the affection of foreign companies. Yet both cities have done so well wooing them of late that the major threat facing each isn't the other, but bottlenecks in the foreign infrastructure common to both. High-end housing costs are pushing past records set before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, prompting Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, to lament, "We must check this hike in rents or we will lose our competitiveness."

   Talent is getting tougher to find as both economies near full employment. Office rents are driving even the richest investment banks to seek cheaper alternatives to prime downtown addresses. And as both cities increase their populations by luring hundreds of thousands of additional outsiders over the coming decade, locals are getting squeezed. "There may be a political cost if Singaporeans feel priced out by foreigners," warns Charles Chong, head of a parliamentary committee on national development in Singapore.

   Both cities are, in a sense, victims of their success. Each ranks among the most efficient spots on the planet to register new businesses. They boast world-class banking, accounting and legal services, undergirded by respect for contracts and commercial codes not found in the rest of Asia. In a region awash in cash from record trade surpluses, Chinese expansion and a flood of new stock listings, the cities have posted incredible GDP growth numbers of late—6.8 percent and 7.9 percent for Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, last year.

   Given that local fertility rates are falling, both hubs hope to continue to fuel that boom via immigration. Singapore's Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan expects the city-state's population to hit 6.5 million by 2027, up 2 million from today—which implies a yearly influx of 100,000 foreigners over the next two decades. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang has said he envisions his city's population eventually surpassing 10 million—a 30 percent increase from today's total—thanks to "an injection of new blood from all nationalities." As the hubs grow more receptive to outsiders, new factors are ensuring that immigrants arrive in large numbers. Whereas globalization was once confined to big multinationals, today's expatriates work disproportionately for smaller-and medium-size companies. Nor are they predominantly European or North America anymore; China, India and South Korea are just three of the many countries now sending professionals abroad.

   注（1）：本文選自Newsweek, 08/06/2007

   注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對(duì)象：第1題模仿1994年真題Text 4第3題，第2 題模仿2004年真題Text45第2題，第3、5 題分別模仿2002年真題Text 5第3題和Text 3第4題，第4題模仿1998年真題Text 2第4題。

   1． Foreigners in Hong Kong begin to sweat because _______.

    [A] the real-estate market is cooling down.

    [B] they cannot afford children’s tuition fee at international schools.

    [C] the city is over-populated.

    [D] the hiking rents are making life tougher.

   2． We learn from the second paragraph that _______.

    [A] Hong Kong and Singapore consider each other as competitors.

    [B] both the two cities should not import foreigners.

    [C] the two cities share no common problem.

    [D] Lee Kuan Yew’s comment shows that he’s optimistic.

   3． According to the text, local people in the two cities _______.

    [A] do not welcome overseas talents.

    [B] are facing worse living conditions.

    [C] are unsatisfied with the government.

    [D] are in full employment.

   4． Which of the following is NOT the reason of the region’s abundance of capital?

    [A] efficiency of business registration

    [B] China’s development

    [C] booming stock market

    [D] benefit from trade

   5． We can draw a conclusion from the last paragraph that _______.

    [A] the conflict between population and rent in the two cities might be more serious.

    [B] most of the foreigners work in big multinational companies.

    [C] both cities will adopt measures to control population.

    [D] the influx of foreigners can damage local economy.

   篇章剖析

    本文是一篇說明文，介紹了香港和新加坡這兩個(gè)欣欣向榮的亞洲金融中心地價(jià)和房租飛漲的情況及其具體原因。文章第一段介紹了香港和新加坡令人乍舌的高房租給人們的工作生活帶來的困難；第二、三段進(jìn)一步地闡發(fā)問題所在及其嚴(yán)重性；第四、五段則分析了造成這種局面的根本原因在于兩座城市的成功。

   詞匯注釋

   sizzle [sizl] vi.咝咝的響，燒灼       lure [ljuE] v. 引誘

   blink [bliNk] v. 眨眼               squeeze [skwi:z] v. 壓榨, 擠, 擠榨

   pack [pAk] vi. 擠, 群集            boast [bEust] v.自夸, 以有...而自豪

   bleak [bli:k] adj.荒涼的, 凄涼的      undergird [`Qnd`gE:d] v.加強(qiáng), 鞏固...的底部

   debenture [di`bentFE] n. 債券        awash [E`wCF] adj. 被浪沖打的

   duel [djuEl] v. 決斗，雙方抗?fàn)?b>      fertility [fE:`tiliti] n. 人口生產(chǎn)

   hub [hQb] v. 中心                 influx [`inflQks] n.流入；匯集

   woo [wu:] v. 追求，爭(zhēng)取…支持      envision [in`viVEn] vt. 想象; 預(yù)見; 展望

   bottleneck [bCtl`nek] n. 瓶頸         injection [in`dVekFEn] n. 注射，注入

   lament [lE`ment] vi.悔恨, 悲嘆       expatriate [eks`pAtrieit] n. 移居國(guó)外者

   難句突破

   Asia's dueling financial hubs invest a lot of capital—real and emotional—in what's often cast as a zero-sum contest for the affection of foreign companies.

   主體句式  Asia’s financial hubs invest in…

   結(jié)構(gòu)分析  該句結(jié)構(gòu)并不復(fù)雜，但是其中修飾成分較多，容易引起混淆。兩個(gè)破折號(hào)中間的“real and emotional”用來補(bǔ)充修飾前面提到的“capital”。此外，invest in這個(gè)短語后面通常跟的都是sth, 而句中的sth就是what引導(dǎo)的主語從句。

   句子譯文  這兩個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的亞洲金融樞紐為了贏得外國(guó)公司的偏好，都在所謂的零和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)(零和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)原意指一種技術(shù)的應(yīng)用帶來的市場(chǎng)份額上的增加,必然會(huì)導(dǎo)致另一種技術(shù)在市場(chǎng)份額上的減少,雙方加起來的總變化量為零)上投下了大筆資金—不論是實(shí)際的還是情感上的。

   題目分析

   1．D. 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第一段提到的香港那些富裕的移民們開始冒汗是一種比喻的說法，意指他們開始變得緊張，后面指出問題所在是由于房?jī)r(jià)現(xiàn)在高得離譜，使得他們現(xiàn)在的生活開始變得不像以前那么輕松舒適�？梢�，令他們緊張的上漲的房?jī)r(jià)。

   2．A. 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段第一句話中的“dueling”含有決斗、競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的意思，說明了兩座城市都視對(duì)方為競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者。

   3．B. 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)文章第三段，隨著外來人口越來越多，兩座城市的本地人口住得越來越擁擠，可見本地人的居住環(huán)境正在變差。

   4．A. 細(xì)節(jié)題。第四段第三行指出“不斷創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的貿(mào)易順差、中國(guó)的不斷擴(kuò)張、以及來自無數(shù)新上市的股票，所有這些都是得這個(gè)地區(qū)充斥著各種資金”，答案顯而易見。

   5．A. 推理題。根據(jù)文章比較后一段，兩座城市的政治家們都希望進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)大本地的人口規(guī)模，以促進(jìn)經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展�？紤]到前文指出兩地目前的人口和土地之間已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了尖銳的矛盾，可以推出未來隨著人口的增長(zhǎng)，這一沖突將會(huì)更加嚴(yán)重。

  參考譯文

    居住在一些亞洲金融中心的那些富有移民們通常過著非常輕松的生活。但是今年夏天，連香港和新加坡的富人們也開始冒汗了。問題在哪里呢？過熱的房地產(chǎn)市場(chǎng)讓銀行家們都驚訝地不停眨眼，許多國(guó)際學(xué)校更是擁擠得像高峰時(shí)段的東京地鐵。香港那些豪華高樓中的一居室房租高達(dá)每月5000美元。新加坡的寫字樓房租在過去的一年中更是上漲了105個(gè)百分點(diǎn)—這是世界上比較快的升值率。對(duì)于那些有孩子的雇員來說，情況更加窘迫。香港的國(guó)際學(xué)校中那些新來的學(xué)生們無法直接被分到班級(jí)中，而必須要在長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的等待列表中排隊(duì)—如果不想排隊(duì)，那么他們的父母必須花費(fèi)12萬美元來購買相應(yīng)的債券。

    這兩個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的亞洲金融樞紐為了贏得外國(guó)公司的偏好，都在所謂的零和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)上投下了大筆資金—不論是實(shí)際的還是情感上的。兩座城市在吸引外國(guó)公司上都做得非常成功，但是現(xiàn)在對(duì)于他們來說，比較大的威脅不是來自于對(duì)方，而是來自一個(gè)共同的問題，即為外國(guó)人進(jìn)行基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施建設(shè)的瓶頸。高檔住房的花費(fèi)在1997-98年的亞洲金融危機(jī)之前一直不斷地在打破紀(jì)錄，以至于新加坡國(guó)父李光耀感慨道：“我們必須要控制房租的高漲，否則我們會(huì)失去競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力�！�

    這兩個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)體幾乎都已經(jīng)實(shí)現(xiàn)了飽和就業(yè)，因此對(duì)于人才來說找工作也變得更加困難。寫字樓的房租高到連比較有錢的投資銀行都開始在中心城市以外的地方尋找更加便宜的辦公室。在過去的十年中，這兩座城市都通過吸引了成千上萬的移民來增加其人口規(guī)模，以至于本地人的居住環(huán)境越來越擁擠。新加坡議會(huì)的國(guó)家發(fā)展委員會(huì)主席查爾斯·宋警告道：“如果新加坡人覺得因?yàn)橥鈬?guó)人的到來使得價(jià)格變得如此高昂，那么這就有一個(gè)政治的成本�！�

    從某種意義上來說，這兩座城市都是自身成功的受害者。它們都是這個(gè)星球上注冊(cè)新公司比較高效的地方。它們以擁有世界級(jí)的金融、會(huì)計(jì)和法律服務(wù)為豪，并充分尊重合同和商業(yè)術(shù)語，這在亞洲的其他地方是見不到的。不斷創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的貿(mào)易順差、中國(guó)的不斷擴(kuò)張、以及無數(shù)新上市的股票，所有這些都是得這個(gè)地區(qū)充斥著各種資金，從而推動(dòng)著兩個(gè)城市以令人難以置信的速度發(fā)展，去年香港和新加坡的GDP分別增長(zhǎng)了6.8和7.9個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。

    由于當(dāng)?shù)氐某錾�率不斷降��，這兩個(gè)金融樞紐都希望繼續(xù)通過吸引移民來推動(dòng)增長(zhǎng)。新加坡的國(guó)家發(fā)展部長(zhǎng)馬寶山希望這個(gè)城市國(guó)家的人口到2027年能夠達(dá)到650萬，即比現(xiàn)在增加200萬人—這意味著在接下來的20年中，新加坡每年要輸入10萬外國(guó)人。香港行政長(zhǎng)官曾蔭權(quán)曾經(jīng)表示，他希望這座城市的人口能夠比較終突破1000萬—即比現(xiàn)在的人口數(shù)增長(zhǎng)百分之30—且人口增長(zhǎng)將包括“來自各個(gè)國(guó)家的新鮮血液”。隨著兩座城市更加尊重外來人口，一些新的因素保證了將會(huì)有更大規(guī)模的移民遷入。過去，人們認(rèn)為全球化僅限于那些大規(guī)模的跨國(guó)公司，但現(xiàn)在大部分移民卻都是在為小型和中型的公司工作。這些移民也不再是主要來自于歐洲和北美；越來越多的國(guó)家都在向國(guó)外輸出專業(yè)人才，其中包括中國(guó)、印度和韓國(guó)。